Contents

Background

Mizuki as a child.

As revealed in the anime, Mizuki was originally a childhood friend to Iruka Umino and stood up for him until he was overwhelmed by sheer jealous rage when Iruka was getting better treatment by everyone else. Despite his new-found hatred towards Iruka, Mizuki pretended to be his friend to be noticed and to discreetly keep Iruka miserable.

In the anime, sometime after Mizuki became a chūnin, he was assigned, alongside two other men, on the Secret Document Recovery Mission (機密文書奪還任務, Kimitsu Bunsho Dakkan Ninmu). During their retreat, one of the comrades suffered a leg injury, and Mizuki suffocated the man to death, believing that the injury would cause him to be a hindrance to the mission's success, and then falsely reporting that the comrade died from the injury, which Mizuki exaggerated in severity. Orochimaru witnessed this transgression, and after praising Mizuki for being able to take such bold actions, gave him a prototype cursed seal.

It was because of the controversy of Mizuki's actions and report during the mission that he was denied the position as an Academy instructor despite his performance in the test. Despite the lack of evidence leading to the investigation being dropped and eventually granting Mizuki the position, he nevertheless was infuriated when he overheard the committee's reason for initially not promoting him, leaving him to despise Konohagakure, especially when Iruka, who only performed well with Mizuki's assistance, made the cut. This feeling of being unappreciated for what he believes to be justifiable actions, along with meeting Orochimaru, made Mizuki decide he would do whatever it took to rise to power and glory, even becoming a secret follower of Orochimaru.

In the anime, Mizuki was the fiancé of Tsubaki, who saw him as a sweet man. However, after his involvement with Orochimaru, their relationship faltered. He expressed to her hypocritical, prejudiced views on how Naruto Uzumaki is an evil individual, and revealed to her of his plan to steal the Scroll of Seals to present to Orochimaru, the latter information she withheld from the village, hoping Mizuki would come back to his senses.

Personality

Originally, Mizuki appeared to be very polite and kind-hearted, and was described to be a sweet man by his former fiancée, Tsubaki. In reality, he does not care for anything or anyone beyond his own rise in power. He takes pride in the fact that he is not bound by things like morals or teamwork, and is willing to sacrifice whatever he has to in order to complete his goals. His desire for power seems to come from what appears to be an inferiority complex, as he cannot stand having anyone look down on him. Although Tsubaki claimed that Mizuki was a sweet man before meeting Orochimaru, even that was a façade as he already showcased his underhanded and ruthless methods since childhood, having a manipulated friendship with Iruka for his own benefits, and later murdering a comrade who suffered a minor injury, justifying his actions by claiming he is merely eliminating any potential hindrances for the mission's smooth success. Mizuki's defining characteristics are being greatly ambitious and dishonourable.[1]

Mizuki's craving for power and acknowledgement led him to hate Iruka for gaining more attention than him, and pretended to be Iruka's friend in order to live off of that attention, as well as discreetly inflict misery on Iruka. Because of this, during their second confrontation, Mizuki constantly mocked Iruka while refusing to surrender and repent no matter how many times Iruka tried to convince him to. Due to his disregard for comradeship and friendship, Mizuki detests the Will of Fire, insulting it when Iruka tried to encourage Mizuki to look back into it, dismissing it as irritating nonsense. In what is perhaps an attempt to make him even more of an antithesis to Naruto, Mizuki's least favourite food is ramen, which happens to be Naruto's favourite. Mizuki also has a particular hatred for Naruto, seeing him only as the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. His avarice even drove him to ignore Tsubaki's love, having no more feelings for her himself, as he took advantage of her lingering affections for him and used her to benefit himself, and then attacking her when she begged him to stop, even physically tossing her aside later on. Upon discovering that Naruto gained acknowledgement after risking his life to defend the village, Mizuki grew angrier than ever at him, refusing to accept the boy's heroism, and instead accused the villagers of being easily excited.

When Mizuki overheard the Third Hokage and the examination committee suspecting his field of conduct as a reason for not promoting him, he felt that they wronged him for accomplishing a mission at all cost, and developed a grudge against the village for feeling they neither appreciate nor understand his powers and efforts. He reached his tipping point of betraying the village when Orochimaru praised his actions and gave him a cursed seal; Mizuki came to the delusion that Orochimaru truly acknowledged his potential, and hold the renegade to high regard. Mizuki believed if he went to Orochimaru, he would be granted even more power, and attempted to steal the Scroll of Seals as a means to please him.

Mizuki has proven himself to be sadistic; even as a child, he found satisfactions by watching Iruka wallow in misery of losing his parents, stating that having someone to look down on feels great. Upon his second confrontation with Iruka and Naruto, Mizuki declared that he intends to kill them slowly and painfully, as payback for having him arrested. During this, he constantly mocked Iruka's ideals of comradeship and memories, while derogatorily regarding Naruto as a "monster fox" and "nine-tails brat".

Appearance

Mizuki has white shoulder-length hair with a slight hint of blue to it and green eyes. He wore the standard attire of the Konoha-nin before his defection, which included flak jacket and forehead protector that he wore like a bandanna.

Upon being sentenced to the Konoha Strict Correctional Facility in the anime, he wore the prisoner's uniform of a grey tunic with matching pants, with his prisoner number on the back, and going barefoot. During this time, he became much more muscular and well defined in build to the point Naruto didn't recognise him at first. When Mizuki escaped from prison, he changed into an opened black vest, tight black pants, and a dark brown belt which had a silver rectangular belt buckle.

When Mizuki drank the potion concocted from his cursed seal, he gained tiger-like stripes, which also gave him a more feral look. After the potion's effect wore off and his cells began a self-destruction, Mizuki shrivelled up into a frail and decrepit old man, his skin darkened brown and his skin heavily wrinkled. However, Tsunade managed stabilised his deterioration, and even restored his appearance to his original form, before his time in prison.

Abilities

While being a chūnin indicates having capable skill, in the manga, not much of Mizuki's skill was seen beyond proficiently wielding large shuriken, both as melee and throwing weapons. However, he claimed that he can use the Scroll of Seals to gain infinite power, showing confidence in his own potential.

Later, in the anime, he was revealed to be a very clever and talented ninja with a knack for learning advanced techniques, having taught himself various techniques and creatively coordinated them together to corner his opponents. He only never advanced beyond chūnin because of suspicions on his mission conduct. Even the Third Hokage admits he is an excellent shinobi. He was also shown to be a very cunning manipulator, having planned out his own escape from prison. During Mizuki's prison time, prowess increased considerably, able to defeat a jōnin such as Shizune.

Cursed Seal

Mizuki's bipedal tiger transformation.

Orochimaru granted Mizuki a tattoo which was a formula of a potion to transform one into a muscle-bound behaemoth of himself with tremendous raw speed and strength. By focusing his chakra, he could further the transformation into a tiger-like being with even greater strength but reduced speed. However, the potion was incomplete and shortly afterwards he was reduced to an emaciated old man. Although Tsunade managed to save his life, Mizuki lost all of his capacities as a ninja permanently.

Ninjutsu

Mizuki gained mastery of a random assortment of techniques. While mostly improvised, he proved very capable of using them in creative combinations that Iruka just barely survived; Mizuki was able to use Earth Release, which allowed him to hide underground and then stretch his arm from below to strike down his unsuspecting foe, and a combination of a binding illusion and controlling a simple puppet that wielded a sword to finish off a helpless target at a safe distance.

Physical Prowess

During his training while in prison, he obtained an extreme amount of raw strength, able to quickly pressure Iruka in their initial clash with a single hand. Also from his time spent in such darkness, Mizuki's eyesight adapted to fighting in darkness and likewise able to seamlessly move about while keeping himself undetected.

Part I

Prologue — Land of Waves

Naruto surrounding Mizuki with thousands of shadow clones.

At the series' start, playing on the youth's desire to graduate, Mizuki duped Naruto Uzumaki into stealing Konoha's Scroll of Seals for him. Originally, Mizuki had the plan set up to have Naruto as a scapegoat and kill him to hide the truth of his deception and secretly leave the village with the scroll in his possession. However, Mizuki's plan is derailed when Iruka found Naruto first and decided to reveal Naruto's identity as the Nine-Tails's jinchūriki to ensure he runs off disillusioned. However, overhearing Iruka standing up for him, Naruto comes to his teacher's aid and uses the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique he had learned from the scroll to beat Mizuki unconscious for harming Iruka.

Mizuki Tracking Mission

Mizuki after being in the prison.

In the manga, Mizuki claimed that he wanted the Scroll of Seals to gain infinite power for himself, and after his defeat, his fate remains unmentioned. However, the anime's filler arc showed that Mizuki intended to give the scroll to Orochimaru. Ending up at the Konoha Strict Correctional Facility after his defeat by Naruto, Mizuki bulked up by the time he stages a prison riot to escape from jail, intending to use the instructions given to him by Orochimaru to create a potion to increase his power and get his revenge on both Naruto and Iruka. Before that, he visited his lover, Tsubaki, who claimed that Mizuki used to be a sweet man, but that, ever since he got involved with Orochimaru, her relationship with Mizuki had faltered. After getting a change of clothes and food supply, Mizuki knocked out Tsubaki, whom he apparently did not love any more, when she pleaded him to stop this madness. Mizuki then confronted Iruka, and after besting him with a new arsenal of techniques, attacked a laboratory belonging to the Nara clan to find the ingredients to the potion. Upon gaining what he needed, he took the ingredients to a cave with the equipments inside a secret room to brew the potion.

Mizuki's cells destroyed by the incomplete potion, and being stabilised by Kitō.

After consuming the potion, Mizuki obtained enhanced strength and power, stripes along his body, and enlarged arms. Later, as he added extract of a tiger into the potion, Mizuki assumed a tiger-like appearance but decreased his speed as Naruto managed to defeat him with the Rasengan. By that time, the flawed side effects of the Animal Curse Seal take effect with the defeated Mizuki reduced to a frail old man. Although his life was saved by Tsunade as she stopped his body from breaking down any further, and even restored his form to before his incarceration, having no information on Orochimaru's whereabouts while being interrogated, Mizuki loses his ability of ninjutsu for what is later revealed to have been a failed experiment of Orochimaru.